Systems and methods for determining, collecting, and using geographic locations of Internet users

ABSTRACT

A method of determining a geographic location of an Internet user involves determining if the host is on-line, determining ownership of the host name, and then determining the route taken in delivering packets to the user. Based on the detected route, the method proceeds with determining the geographic route based on the host locations and then assigning a confidence level to the assigned location. A system collects the geographic information and allows web sites or other entities to request the geographic location of their visitors. The database of geographic locations may be stored in a central location or, alternatively, may be at least partially located at the web site. With this information, web sites can target content, advertising, or route traffic depending upon the geographic locations of their visitors. Through web site requests for geographic information, a central database tracks an Internet user&#39;s traffic on the Internet whereby a profile can be generated. In addition to this profile, the central database can store visitor&#39;s preferences as to what content should be delivered to an IP address, the available interface, and the network speed associated with that IP address.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to, and incorporates by reference, U.S.Application Ser. No. 60/132,147 entitled “System to Determine theGeographic Location of an Internet User” filed on May 3, 1999, and U.S.Application Ser. No. 60/133,939 entitled “Method, System and Set ofPrograms for Tailoring an Internet Site Based Upon the GeographicLocation or Internet Connection Speed of Internet User” filed on May 13,1999.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to systems and methods for determininggeographic locations of Internet users. According to other aspects, theinvention relates to systems and methods for collecting geographiclocations of Internet users, for profiling Internet users, or forselectively delivering information based on the geographic locations orconnection speeds of the Internet users.

BACKGROUND

The Internet consists of a network of interconnected computer networks.Each of these computers has an IP address that is comprised of a seriesof four numbers separated by periods or dots and each of these fournumbers is an 8-bit integer which collectively represent the uniqueaddress of the computer within the Internet. The Internet is a packetswitching network whereby a data file routed over the Internet to somedestination is broken down into a number of packets that are separatelytransmitted to the destination. Each packet contains, inter alia, someportion of the data file and the IP address of the destination.

The IP address of a destination is useful in routing packets to thecorrect destination but is not very people friendly. A group of four8-bit numbers by themselves do not reveal or suggest anything about thedestination and most people would find it difficult to remember the IPaddresses of a destination. As a result of this shortcoming in justusing IP addresses, domain names were created. Domain names consist oftwo or more parts, frequently words, separated by periods. Since thewords, numbers, or other symbols forming a domain name often indicate orat least suggest the identity of a destination, domain names have becomethe standard way of entering an address and are more easily rememberedthan the IP addresses. After a domain name has been entered, a domainname server (DNS) resolves the domain name into a specific IP address.Thus, for example, when someone surfing the Internet enters into abrowser program a particular domain name for a web site, the browserfirst queries the DNS to arrive at the proper IP address.

While the IP address works well to deliver packets to the correctaddress on the Internet, IP addresses do not convey any usefulinformation about the geographic address of the destination.Furthermore, the domain names do not even necessarily indicate anygeographic location although sometimes they may suggest, correctly orincorrectly, such a location. This absence of a link between the IPaddress or domain name and the geographic location holds true bothnationally and internationally. For instance, a country top-level domainformat designates us for the United States, uk for the United Kingdom,etc. Thus, by referencing these extensions, at least the country withinwhich the computer is located can often be determined. These extensions,however, can often be deceiving and may be inaccurate. For instance, the.md domain is assigned to the Republic of Moldova but has become quitepopular with medical doctors in the United States. Consequently, whilethe domain name may suggest some aspect of the computer's geographiclocation, the domain name and the IP address often do not convey anyuseful geographic information.

In addition to the geographic location, the IP address and domain namealso tell very little information about the person or company using thecomputer or computer network. Consequently, it is therefore possible forvisitors to go to a web site, transfer files, or send email withoutrevealing their true identity. This anonymity, however, runs counter tothe desires of many web sites. For example, for advertising purposes, itis desirable to target each advertisement to a select market groupoptimized for the goods or services associated with the advertisement.An advertisement for a product or service that matches or is closelyassociated with the interests of a person or group will be much moreeffective, and thus more valuable to the advertisers, than anadvertisement that is blindly sent out to every visitor to the site.

Driven often by the desire to increase advertising revenues and toincrease sales, many sites are now profiling their visitors. To profilea visitor, web sites first monitor their visitors' traffic historicallythrough the site and detect patterns of behavior for different groups ofvisitors. The web site may come to infer that a certain group ofvisitors requesting a page or sequence of pages has a particularinterest. When selecting an advertisement for the next page requested byan individual in that group, the web site can target an advertisementassociated with the inferred interest of the individual or group. Thus,the visitor's traffic through the web site is mapped and analyzed basedon the behavior of other visitors at the web site. Many web sites aretherefore interested in learning as much as possible about theirvisitors in order to increase the profitability of their web site.

The desire to learn more about users of the Internet is countered byprivacy concerns of the users. The use of cookies, for instance, isobjectionable to many visitors. In fact, bills have been introduced intothe House of Representatives and also in the Senate controlling the useof cookies or digital ID tags. By placing cookies on a user's computer,companies can track visitors across numerous web sites, therebysuggesting interests of the visitors. While many companies may findcookies and other profiling techniques beneficial, profiling techniqueshave not won wide-spread approval from the public at large.

A particularly telling example of the competing interests betweenprivacy and profiling is when Double Click, Inc. of New York, N.Y. tiedthe names and addresses of individuals to their respective IP addresses.The reactions to Double Click's actions included the filing of acomplaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by the ElectronicPrivacy Information Center and outbursts from many privacy advocatesthat the tracking of browsing habits of visitors is inherently invasive.Thus, even though the technology may allow for precise tracking ofindividuals on the Internet, companies must carefully balance the desireto profile visitors with the rights of the visitors in remaininganonymous.

A need therefore exists for systems and methods by which more detailedinformation may be obtained on visitors without jeopardizing orcompromising the visitors' privacy rights.

SUMMARY

The invention addresses the problems above by providing systems andmethods for determining the geographic locations of Internet users.According to one aspect, a method of collecting geographic informationinvolves taking one of the IP address or host name and determining theorganization that owns the IP address. Preferably, the method firsttakes one of the IP address or host name and checks whether the hostname is associated with that IP address, such as through an nslookupquery. Next, the route to the host is acquired, preferably through atraceroute query, so as to determine a number of intermediate hosts. Thespecific route is analyzed and mapped against a database of storedgeographic locations, thereby mapping out the intermediate hosts. Forany intermediate host not having a location stored in the database, themethod involves determining a geographic location and storing thisinformation in the database.

According to another aspect, the invention relates to a system fordetermining geographic locations of Internet users. The determinationsystem receives queries from requesters, such as web sites, for thegeographic location of a certain Internet user. The determination systemin turn queries a central database of stored locations and returns thegeographic information if contained in the database. If the geographicinformation is not in the database, then the system performs a search tocollect that information. Instead of querying a central database eachtime geographic location of an Internet user is desired, the web site orother requestor may have geographic locations of at least some Internetusers stored in a local database. The web site first checks with thelocal database for the geographic information and, if it not available,then sends a query to the central database.

The geographic location information of Internet users can be used for avariety of purposes. For instance, a position targeter can be associatedwith web sites to target the delivery of information based on thegeographic location information. The web sites can selectively delivercontent or advertising based on the geographic location of its visitors.The geographic location information can also be used in the routing ofInternet traffic. A traffic manager associated with a number of webservers detects the geographic locations of its Internet visitors androutes the traffic to the closest server.

The databases of geographic locations can contain other information thatmay be useful to web sites and other requestors. The databases, forinstance, can serve as a registery for allowed content that may bedelivered to a particular IP address or range of IP addresses. Thus,prior to a web site delivering content to an IP address, the web sitemay query the database to ensure that the delivery of the content ispermitted. The databases may store network speeds of Internet userswhereby a web site can tailor the amount of content delivered to anInternet user based in part of the bandwidth to that user. The databasesmay also store an interface of an Internet user whereby a web site cantailor the content and presentation for that particular interface. Otheruses of the geographic location and of the systems and methods describedherein will be apparent to those skilled in the art and are encompassedby the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part ofthe specification, illustrate preferred embodiments of the presentinvention and, together with the description, disclose the principles ofthe invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network having a collection systemaccording to a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart depicting a preferred method of operation for thecollection system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting a preferred method of obtaininggeographic information through an Internet Service Provider (ISP);

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a network having a collection system anddetermination system according to a preferred embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a preferred method of operation for thecollection and determination system;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a web server using a position targeterconnected to the collection and determination system;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart depicting a preferred method of operation for theweb server and position targeter of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a web server using a position targeterhaving access to a local geographic database as well as the collectionand determination system;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart depicting a preferred method of operation for theweb server and position targeter of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a network depicting the gathering ofgeographical location information from a user through a proxy server;

FIG. 1I is a flow chart depicting a preferred method of operation forgathering geographic information through the proxy server;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a traffic manager according to a preferredembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a network including a profile server and aprofile discovery server according to a preferred embodiment of theinvention; and

FIGS. 14(A) and 14(B) are flow charts depicting preferred methods ofoperation for the profile server and profile discovery server of FIG.13.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to preferred embodiments of theinvention, non-limiting examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings.

I. Collecting, Determining and Distributing Geographic Locations

According to one aspect, the present invention relates to systems andmethods of collecting, determining, and distributing data thatidentifies where an Internet user is likely to be geographicallylocated. Because the method of addressing on the Internet, InternetProtocol (IP) addresses, allows for any range of addresses to be locatedanywhere in the world, determining the actual location of any givenmachine, or host, is not a simple task.

A. Collecting Geographic Location Data

A system 10 for collecting geographic information is shown in FIG. 1.The system 10 uses various Internet route tools to aid in discoveringthe likely placement of newly discovered Internet hosts, such as newtarget host 34. In particular the system 10 preferably uses programsknown as host, nslookup, ping, traceroute, and whois in determining ageographic location for the target host 34. It should be understood thatthe invention is not limited to these programs but may use otherprograms or systems that offer the same or similar functionality. Thus,the invention may use any systems or methods to determine the geographiclocation or provide further information that will help ascertain thegeographic location of an IP address.

In particular, nslookup, ping, traceroute, and whois provide the bestsource of information. The operation of ping and traceroute is explainedin the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request For Comments (RFC)numbered 2151 which may be found at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2151.txt,nslookup (actually DNS lookups) is explained in the IETF RFC numbered2535 which may be found at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2535.txt, andwhois is explained in the IETF RFC numbered 954 which may be found athttp://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0954.txt. A brief explanation of each ofhost, nslookup, ping, traceroute, and whois is given below. Inexplaining the operation of these commands, source host refers to themachine that the system 10 is run on ard target host refers to themachine being searched for by the system 10, such as target host 34. Amore detailed explanation of these commands is available via the RFCsspecified or manual pages on a UNIX system.

host queries a target domain's DNS servers and collects informationabout the domain name. For example, with the “-l” option the command“host -l digitalenvoy.net” will show the system 10 all host names thathave the suffix of digitalenvoy.net.

nslookup will convert an IP address to a host name or vice versa usingthe DNS lookup system.

ping sends a target host a request to see if the host is on-line andoperational. ping can also be used to record the route that was taken toquery the status of the target host but this is often not completelyreliable.

traceroute is designed to determine the exact route that is taken toreach a target host. It is possible to use traceroute to determine apartial route to a non-existent or non-online target host machine. Inthis case the route will be traced to a certain point after which itwill fail to record further progress towards the target host. The reportthat is provided to the system 10 by traceroute gives the IP address ofeach host encountered from the source host to the target host.traceroute can also provide host names for each host encountered usingDNS if it is configured in this fashion.

whois queries servers on the Internet and can obtain registrationinformation for a domain name or block of IP addresses.

A preferred method 100 of operation for the system 10 will now bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. At 102, the system 10receives a new address for which a geographic location is desired. Thesystem 10 accepts new target hosts that are currently not contained inits database 20 or that need to be re-verified. The system 10 requiresonly one of the IP address or the host name, although both can beprovided. At 103, the system 10 preferably, although not necessarily,verifies the IP address and host name. The system 10 uses nslookup toobtain the host name or IP address to verify that both pieces ofinformation are correct. Next, at 104, the system 10 determines if thetarget host 34 is on-line and operational and preferably accomplishesthis function through aping. If the host 34 is not on-line, the system10 can re-queue the IP address for later analysis, depending upon thepreferences in the configuration of the system 10.

At 106, the system 10 determines ownership of the domain name.Preferably, the system 10 uses a whois to determine the organizationthat actually owns the IP address. The address of this organization isnot necessarily the location of the IP address but this information maybe useful for smaller organizations whose IP blocks are oftengeographically in one location. At 107, the system 10 then determinesthe route taken to reach the target host 34. Preferably, the system 10uses a traceroute on the target host 34. At 108, the system 10 takes theroute to the target host 34 and analyzes and maps it geographicallyagainst a database 20 of stored locations. If any hosts leading to thetarget host, such as intermediate host 32, are not contained in thedatabase 20, the system 10 makes a determination as to the location ofthose hosts.

At 109, a determination is then made as to the location of the targethost and a confidence level, from 0 to 100, is assigned to thedetermination based on the confidence level of hosts leading to and newhosts found and the target host 34. All new hosts and their respectivegeographic locations are then added to the database 20 at 110.

If the host name is of the country top-level domain format (.us, .uk,etc.) then the system 10 first maps against the country and possibly thestate, or province, and city of origin. The system 10, however, muststill map the Internet route for the IP address in case the address doesnot originate from where the domain shows that it appears to originate.As discussed in the example above, the .md domain is assigned to theRepublic of Moldova but is quite popular with medical doctors in theUnited States. Thus, the system 10 cannot rely completely upon thecountry top-level domain formats in determining the geographic location.

The method 100 allows the system 10 to determine the country, state, andcity that the target host 34 originates from and allow for an assignmentof a confidence level against entries in the database. The confidencelevel is assigned in the following manner. In cases where a dialer hasbeen used to determine the IP address space assigned by an InternetService Provider to a dial-up modem pool, which will be described inmore detail below, the confidence entered is 100. Other confidences arebased upon the neighboring entries. If two same location entriessurround an unknown entry, the unknown entry is given a confidence ofthe average of the known same location entries. For instance, a locationdetermined solely by whois might receive a 35 confidence level.

As an example, a sample search against the host “digitalenvoy.net” willnow be described. First, the system 10 receives the target host“digitalenvoy.net” at 102 and does a DNS lookup on the name at 103. Thecommand nslookup returns the following to the system 10: > nslookupdigitalenvoy.net Name:  digitalenvoy.net Address: 209.153.199.15

The system 10 at 104 then does aping on the machine, which tells thesystem 10 if the target host 34 is on-line and operational. The “-c l”option tells ping to only send one packet. This option speeds upconfirmation considerably. The ping returns the following to the system10: > ping -c 1 digitalenvoy.net PING digitalenvoy.net (209.153.199.15): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 209.153.199.15: icmp_seq=0 ttl=241time=120.4 ms --- digitalenvoy.net ping statistics --- 1 packetstransmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max =120.4/120.4/120.4 ms

The system 10 next executes a whois at 106 on “digitalenvoy.net”. Inthis example, the whois informs the system 10 that the registrant is inGeorgia. > whois digitalenvoy.net Registrant: Some One(DIGITALENVOY-DOM)  1234 Address Street  ATLANTA, GA 33333 US DomainName: DIGITALENVOY.NET Administrative Contact:  One, Some (SO0000)some@one.net  +1 404 555 5555 Technical Contact, Zone Contact:  myDNSSupport (MS311-ORG) support@MYDNS.COM  +1 (206) 374.2143 BillingContact:  One, Some (SO0000) some@one.net  +1 404 555 5555 Record lastupdated on 14-Apr-99. Record created on 14-Apr-99. Database last updatedon 22-Apr-99 11:06:22 EDT. Domain servers in listed order:NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM    209.153.199.2 NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM    209.153.199.3NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM    209.153.199.4 NS4.MYDOMAIN.COM    209.153.199.5

The system 10 at 107 executes a traceroute on the target host 34. Thetraceroute on “digitalenvoy.net” returns the following to the system10: > traceroute digitalenvoy.net traceroute to digitalenvoy.net(209.153.199.15), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets  1 130.207.47.1(130.207.47.1) 6.269 ms 2.287 ms 4.027 ms  2 gateway1-rtr.gatech.edu(130.207.244.1) 1.703 ms 1.672 ms 1.928 ms  3f1-0.atlanta2-cr99.bbnplanet.net (192.221.26.2) 3.296 ms 3.051 ms 2.910ms  4 f1-0.atlanta2-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.2.90) 3.000 ms 3.617 ms 3.632ms  5 s4-0-0.atlanta1-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.149) 4.076 ms s8-1-0.atlanta1-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.2.157) 4.761 ms 4.740 ms  6h5-1-0.paloalto-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.3.142) 72.385 ms 71.635 ms 69.482ms  7 p2-0.paloalto-nbr2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.2.197) 82.580 ms 83.476 ms82.987 ms  8 p4-0.sanjosel-nbr1.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.2) 79.299 ms 78.139ms 80.416 ms  9 p1-0-0.sanjosel-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.0.1.82) 78.918 ms78.406 ms 79.217 ms 10 NSanjose-core0.nap.net (207.112.242.253) 80.031ms 78.506 ms 122.622 ms 11 NSeattle1-core0.nap.net (207.112.247.138)115.104 ms 112.868 ms 114.678 ms 12 sea-atm0.starcom-accesspoint.net(207.112.243.254) 112.639 ms 327.223 ms 173.847 ms 13van-atm10.10.starcom.net (209.153.195.49) 118.899 ms 116.603 ms 114.036ms 14 hume.worldway.net (209.153.199.15) 118.098 ms * 114.571 ms

After referring to the geographic locations stored in the database 20,the system 10 analyzes these hops in the following way: 130.207.47.1(130.207.47.1) Host machine located in Atlanta, GAgateway1-rtr.gatech.edu Atlanta, GA - confidence 100 (130.207.244.1)f1-0.atlanta2-cr99.bbnplanet.net Atlanta, GA - confidence 100(192.221.26.2) f1-0.atlanta2-br2.bbnplanet.net Atlanta, GA - confidence95 (4.0.2.90) s4-0-0.atlanta1-br2.bbnplanet.net Atlanta, GA - confidence80 (4.0.1.149) h5-1-0.paloalto-br2.bbnplanet.net Palo Alto, CA -confidence 85 (4.0.3.142) p2-0.paloalto-nbr2.bbnplanet.net Palo Alto,CA - confidence 90 (4.0.2.197) p4-0.sanjose1-nbr1.bbnplanet.net SanJose, CA - confidence 85 (4.0.1.2) p1-0-0.sanjose1-br2.bbnplanet.net SanJose, CA - confidence 100 (4.0.1.82) NSanjose-core0.nap.net San Jose,CA - confidence 90 (207.112.242.253) NSeattle1-core0.nap.net Seattle,WA - confidence 95 (207.112.247.138) sea-atm0.starcom-accesspoint.netSeattle, WS - confidence 95 (207.112.243.254) van-atm10.10.starcom.netVancouver, British Columbia (209.153.195.49) Canada - confidence 100hume.worldway.net (209.153.199.15) Vancouver, British Columbia Canada

The system 10 assigns a confidence level of 99 indicating that the entryis contained in the database 20 and has been checked by a person forconfirmation. While confirmations may be performed by persons, such asan analyst, according to other aspects of the invention the confirmationmay be performed by an Artificial Intelligence system or any othersuitable additional system, module, device, program, entities, etc. Thesystem 10 reserves a confidence level of 100 for geographic informationthat has been confirmed by an Internet Service Providers (ISP). The ISPwould provide the system 10 with the actual mapping of IP addressesagainst geography. Also, data gathered with the system 10 throughdialing ISPs is given a 100 confidence level because of a definiteconnection between the geography and the IP address. Many of thesehosts, such as intermediate host 32, will be repeatedly traversed whenthe system 10 searches for new target hosts, such as target host 34, andthe confidence level of their geographic location should increase up toa maximum 99 unless confirmed by an ISP or verified by a system analyst.The confidence level can increase in a number of ways, such as by a setamount with each successive confirmation of the host's 32 geographiclocation.

The system 10 takes advantage in common naming conventions in leading toreasonable guesses as to the geographic location of the hosts. Forexample, any host that contains “sanjose” in the first part of its hostname is probably located in San Jose, Calif. or connected to a systemthat is in San Jose, Calif. These comparison rule sets are implementedin the system 10 as entries in the database 20. The database 20 may havelook-up tables listing geographic locations, such as city, county,regional, state, etc, with corresponding variations of the names. Thus,the database 20 could have multiple listings for the same city, such asSanFrancisco, SanFran, and Sfrancisco all for San Francisco, Calif.

Often a block of IP addresses are assigned and sub-assigned toorganizations. For example, the IP block that contains the targetaddress 209.153.199.15 can be queried: > whois209.153.199.15@whois.arin.net [whois.arin.net] Starcom InternationalOptics Corp. (NETBLK-STARCOM97) STARCOM97                    209.153.192.0 - 209.153.255.255 WORLDWAY HOLDINGSINC. (NETBLK-WWAY-NET-01) WWAY-NET-01                    209.153.199.0 - 209.153.199.255

From the results of this query, the system 10 determines that the largeblock from 209.153.192.0 to 209.153.255.255 is assigned to StarcomInternational Optics Corp. Within this block, Starcom has assignedWorldway Holdings Inc. the 209.153.199.0 to 209.153.199.255 block. Byfurther querying this block (NETBLK-WWAY-NET-01) the collection system10 gains insight into where the organization exists. In this case theorganization is in Vancouver, British Columbia, as shown below. > whoisNETBLK-WWAY-NET-01@whois.arin.net [whois.arin.net] WORLDWAY HOLDINGSINC. (NETBLK-WWAY-NET-01)  1336 West 15th Street  North Vancouver, BCV7L 2S8  CA Netname: WWAY-NET-01 Netblock: 209.153.199.0 -209.153.199.255 Coordinator:   WORLDWAY DNS (WD171-ORG-ARIN)  dns@WORLDWAY.COM   +1 (604) 608.2997 Domain System inverse mappingprovided by: NS1.MYDNS.COM     209.153.199.2NS2.MYDNS.COM     209.153.199.3

With the combination of the trace and the IP block address information,the collection system 10 can be fairly certain that the host“digitalenvoy.net” is located in Vancouver, British Columbia. Becausethe collection system 10 “discovered” this host using automatic methodswith no human intervention, the system 10 preferably assigns aconfidence level slightly lower than the confidence level of the hostthat led to it. Also, the system 10 will not assume the geographiclocation will be the same for the organization and the sub-block of IPaddresses assigned since the actual IP address may be in anotherphysical location. The geographic locations may easily be differentsince IP blocks are assigned to a requesting organization and noindication is required for where the IP block will be used.

B. Obtaining Geographic Location Data from ISPs

A method 111 for obtaining geographic locations from an ISP will now bedescribed with reference to FIG. 3. At 112, the collection system 10obtains access numbers for the ISP. The access numbers in the preferredembodiment are dial-up numbers and may be obtained in any suitablemanner, such as by establishing an account with the ISP. Next, at 113,the collection system 10 connects with the ISP by using one of theaccess numbers. When the collection system 10 establishes communicationswith the ISP, the ISP assigns the collection system 10 an IP address,which is detected by the collection system 10 at 114.

The collection system 10 at 115 then determines the route to a sampletarget host and preferably determines this route through a traceroute.The exact target host that forms the basis of the traceroute as well asthe final destination of the route is not important so any suitable hostmay be used. At 116, the collection system 10 analyzes the routeobtained through traceroute to determine the location of the hostassociated with the ISP. Thus, the collection system 10 looks in abackward direction to determine the geographic location of the next hopin the traceroute. At 117, the collection system 10 stores the resultsof the analysis in the database 20.

With the method 111, the collection system 10 can therefore obtain thegeographic locations of IP addresses with the assistance of the ISPs.Because the collection system 10 dials-up and connects with the ISP, thecollection system 10 preferably performs the method 111 in a such amanner so as to alleviate the load placed on the ISP. For instance, thecollection system 10 may perform the method 111 during off-peak timesfor the ISP, such as during the night. Also, the collection system 10may control the frequency at which it connects with a particular ISP,such as establishing connections with the ISP at 10 minute intervals.

C. Determining Geographic Location Data

With reference to FIG. 4, according to another aspect, the inventionrelates to a geographic determination system 30 that uses the database20 created by the collection system 10. The determination system 10receives requests for a geographic location and based on either the IPaddress or host name of the host being searched for, such as target host34. A geographic information requestor 40 provides the request to, andthe response from, the determination system 30 in an interactive networksession that may occur through the Internet 7 or through some othernetwork. The collection system 10, database 20, and determination system30 can collectively be considered a collection and determination system50.

A preferred method 120 of operation for the determination system 30 willnow be described with reference to FIG. 5. At 122, the system 30receives a request for the geographic location of an entity and, asdiscussed above, receives one or both of the IP address and domain name.At 123, the determination system 30 searches the database 20 for thegeographic location for the data provided, checking to see if theinformation has already been obtained. When searching for an IP addressat 123, the system 30 also tries to find either the same exact IPaddress listed in the database 20 or a range or block of IP addresseslisted in the database 20 that contains the IP address in question. Ifthe IP address being searched for is within a block of addresses, thedetermination system 30 considers it a match, the information isretrieved at 125, and the geographic information is delivered to therequestor 40 at 126. If the information is not available in database 20,as determined at 124, then at 127 the system 30 informs the requester 40that the information is not known. At 128, the system 30 then determinesthe geographic location of the unknown IP address and stores the resultin the database 20. As an alternative at 125 to stating that thegeographic location is unknown, the system 30 could determine thegeographic information and provide the information to the requester 40.

The determination system 30 looks for both the IP address in thedatabase 20 and also for the domain name. Since a single IP address mayhave multiple domain names, the determination system 30 looks for closematches to the domain name in question. For instance, when searching fora host name, the system 30 performs pattern matching against the entriesin the database 20. When a match is found that suggests the same IPaddress, the determination system 30 returns the geographic data forthat entry to the requestor 40.

An ambiguity may arise when the requestor 40 provides both an IP addressand a domain name and these two pieces of data lead to different hostsand different geographic locations. If both data pieces do not exactlymatch geographically, then the system 30 preferably responds with theinformation that represents the best confidence. As another example, thesystem 30 may respond in a manner defined by the requestor 40. As someoptions, the determination system 30 can report only when the datacoincide and agree with each other, may provide no information in theevent of conflicting results, may provide the geographic informationbased only on the IP address, may provide the geographic informationbased only on the host name, or may instead provide a best guess basedon the extent to which the address and host name match.

A sample format of a request sent by the requestor 40 to thedetermination system 30 is provided below, wherein the search is againstthe host “digitalenvoy.net” and the items in bold are responses from thegeographic determination system 30: Connecting toserver.digitalenvoy.net . . . ;digitalenvoy.net; vancouver;britishcolumbia;can;99;The format of the request and the format of the output from thedetermination system 30 can of course be altered according to theapplication and are not in any way limited to the example providedabove.

D. Distributing Geographic Location Data

A system for distributing the geographic location information will nowbe described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. According to a firstaspect shown in FIG. 6, the geographic information on IP addresses anddomain names is collected and determined by the system 50. A web site 60may desire the geographic locations of its visitors and would desirethis information from the collection and determination system 50. Theweb site 60 includes a web server 62 for receiving requests from users 5for certain pages and a position targeter 64 for at least obtaining thegeographic information of the users 5.

A preferred method 130 of operation of the network shown in FIG. 6 willnow be described with reference to FIG. 7. At 132, the web server 62receives a request from the user 5 for a web page. At 133, the webserver 62 queries the position targeter 64 that, in turn, at 134 queriesthe collection and determination system 50 for the geographic locationof the user. Preferably, the position targeter 64 sends the querythrough the Internet 7 to the collection and determination system 50.The position targeter 64, however, may send the query through otherroutes, such as through a direct connection to the collection anddetermination system 50 or through another network. As discussed above,the collection and determination system 50 accepts a target host's IPaddress, host name, or both and returns the geographic location of thehost in a format specified by the web site 60. At 135, the positiontargeter obtains the geographic location from the collection anddetermination system 50, at 136 the information that will be deliveredto the user 5 is selected, and is then delivered to the user 5 at 137.This information is preferably selected by the position targeter basedon the geographic location of the user 5. Alternatively, the positiontargeter 64 may deliver the geographic information to the web server 62which then selects the appropriate information to be delivered to theuser 5. As discussed in more detail below, the geographic location mayhave a bearing on what content is delivered to the user, whatadvertising, the type of content, if any, delivered to the user 5,and/or the extent of content.

As another option shown in FIG. 8, the web site 60 may be associatedwith a local database 66 storing geographic information on users 5. Withreference to FIG. 9, a preferred method 140 of operation begins at 142with the web server 62 receiving a request from the user 5. At 143, theweb server 62 queries a position targeter 64′ for the geographiclocation information. Unlike the operation 130 of the position targeter64 in FIGS. 6 and 7, the position targeter’ next first checks the localdatabase 66 for the desired geographic information. If the locationinformation is not in the database 66, then at 145 the position targeter64′ queries the database 20 associated with the collection anddetermination system 50.

After the position targeter 64′ obtains the geographic information at146, either locally from database 66 or centrally through database 20,the desired information is selected based on the geographic location ofthe user 5. Again, as discussed above, this selection process may beperformed by the position targeter 64′ or by the web server 62. Ineither event, the selected information is delivered to the user 5 at148.

For both the position targeter 64 and position targeter 64′, theposition targeter may be configured to output HTML code based on theresult of the geographic location query. An HTML code based result isparticularly useful when the web site 60 delivers dynamic web pagesbased on the user's 5 location. It should be understood, however, thatthe output of the position targeter 64 and position targeter 64′ is notlimited to HTML code but encompasses any type of content or output, suchas JPEGs, GIFs, etc.

A sample search against the host “digitalenvoy.net” is shown here (itemsin bold are responses from the position targeter 64 or 64′: >distributionprogram digitalenvoy.net vancouver;british columbia;can;99;The format of the output, of course, may differ if different options areenabled or disabled.

End users 5 may elect a different geographic location as compared towhere they have been identified from by the system 50 when it possiblychooses an incorrect geographic location. If this information is passedbacked to the position targeter 64 or 64′, the position targeter 64 or64′ will pass this information to the determination system 30 which willstore this in the database 20 for later analysis. Because thisinformation cannot be trusted completely, the collection anddetermination system 50 must analyze and verify the information andpossibly elect human intervention.

E. Determining Geographic Locations Through a Proxy Server

One difficulty in providing geographic information on a target host iswhen the target host is associated with a caching proxy server. Acaching proxy will make requests on behalf of other network clients andsave the results for future requests. This process reduces the amount ofoutgoing bandwidth from a network that is required and thus is a popularchoice for many Internet access providers. For instance, as shown inFIG. 10, a user 5 may be associated with a proxy server 36.

In some cases, this caching is undesirable since the data inside thembecomes stale. The web has corrected this problem by having a feature bywhich pages can be marked uncacheable. Unfortunately, the requests forthese uncacheable pages still look as if they are coming from the proxyserver 36 instead of the end-user computers 5. The geographicinformation of the user 5, however, may often be required.

A method 150 of determining the geographic information of the user 5associated with the proxy server 36 will now be described with referenceto FIG. 11. In the preferred embodiment, the user 5 has direct routableaccess to the network; e.g. a system using Network Address Translationwill not work since the address is not a part of the global Internet.Also, the proxy server 36 should allow access through arbitrary portswhereby a corporate firewall which blocks direct access on all portswill not work. Finally, the user 5 must have a browser that supportsJava Applets or equivalent such functionality.

With reference to FIG. 11, at 152, a user 5 initiates a request to a webserver 60, such as the web server 60 shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 8. At 153,the HTTP request is processed by the proxy server 36 and no hit is foundin the proxy's cache because the pages for this system are markeduncachable. On behalf of the user 5, the proxy server 38 connects to theweb server 60 and requests the URL at 153. At 154, the web server 60either through the local database 60 or through the database 20 with thecollection and determination system 50, receives the request, determinesit is coming from a proxy server 36, and then at 155 selects the webpage that has been tagged to allow for the determination of the user's 5IP address. The web page is preferably tagged with a Java applet thatcan be used to determine the IP address of the end-user 5. The webserver 60 embeds a unique applet parameter tag for that request andsends the document back to the proxy server 36. The proxy server 36 thenforwards the document to the user 5 at 156.

At 157, the user's 5 browser then executes the Java Applet, passingalong the unique parameter tag. Since by default applets have rights toaccess the host from which they came, the applet on the user's 5 browseropens a direct connection to the client web server 60, such as on, butnot limited to, port 5000. The web server 60, such as through a separateserver program, is listening for and accepts the connection on port5000. At 158, the Java applet then sends back the unique parameter tagto the web server 60. Since the connection is direct, the web server 60at 159 can determine the correct IP address for the user 5, so the webserver 60 now can associate the session tag with that IP address on allfuture requests coming from the proxy server 38.

As an alternative, at 155, the web server 155 may still deliver a webpage that has a Java applet. As with the embodiment discussed above, theweb page having the Java applet is delivered to the proxy server at 156and the user 5 connects with the web server 60 at 157. The Java appletaccording to this embodiment of the invention differs from the Javaapplet discussed above in that at 158 the Java applet reloads the user'sbrowser with what it was told to load by the web server 60. The Javaapplet according to this aspect of the invention is not associated witha unique parameter tag that alleviates the need to handle and to sortthe plurality of unique parameter tags. Instead, with this aspect of theinvention, the web server 60 at 159 determines the IP address andgeographic location of the user 5 when the Java applet connects to theweb server 60.

II. Tailoring an Internet Site Based on Geographic Location of itsVisitors

The web site 60 can tailor the Internet site based upon the geographiclocation or Internet connection speed of an Internet user 5. When theuser 5 visits the Internet site 60, the Internet site 60 queries adatabase, such as local database 60 or central database 20, over theInternet which then returns the geographic location and/or Internetconnection speed of the user based upon the user's IP address and otherrelevant information derived from the user's “hit” on the Internet site60. This information may be derived from the route to the user's 5machine, the user's 5 host name, the hosts along the route to the user'smachine 5, via SNMP, and/or via NTP but not limited to these techniques.Based on this information the Internet site 60 may tailor the contentand/or advertising presented to the user. This tailoring may alsoinclude, but not be limited to, changing the language of the Internetsite to a user's native tongue based on the user's location, varying theproducts or advertising shown on an Internet site based upon thegeographic information and other information received from the database,or preventing access based on the source of the request (i.e. “adult”content sites rejecting requests from schools, etc.). This tailoring canbe done by having several alternative screens or sites for a user andhaving the web server 62 or position targeter 64 or 64′ dynamicallyselect the proper one based upon the user's geographic information. Thegeographic information can also be analyzed to effectively market thesite to potential Internet site advertisers and external contentproviders or to provide media-rich content to users that have sufficientbandwidth.

The methods of tailoring involve tracing the path back to the Internetuser's machine 5, determining the location of all hosts in the path,making a determination of the likelihood of the location of the Internetuser's machine, determining other information about the hosts, which mayor may not be linked to its geographic location, in the path to andincluding the Internet user's machine by directly querying them for suchinformation (by using, but not limited by, SNMP or NTP for example), oralternatively, there is a complete database that may be updated thatstores information about the IP addresses and host names which can bequeried by a distant source which would then be sent information aboutthe user.

The web site 60 dynamically changes Internet content and/or advertisingbased on the geographic location of the Internet user 5 as determinedfrom the above methods or processes. The web site 60 presents one ofseveral pre-designed alternative screens, presentations, or mirror sitesdepending on the information sent by the database as a result of theuser 5 accessing the web site 60.

As discussed above, the selection of the appropriate information todeliver to the user 5 base on the geographic location can be performedeither by the web server 62 or the position targeter 64 or 64′. Ineither case, the web site can dynamically adapt and tailor Internetcontent to suit the needs of Internet users 5 based on their geographiclocation and/or connection speed. As another option, the web site 60 candynamically adapt and tailor Internet advertising for targeting specificInternet users based on their geographic location and/or connectionspeed. Furthermore, the web site 60 can dynamically adapt and tailorInternet content and/or advertising to the native language of Internetusers 5 which may be determined by their geographic location. Also, theweb site 60 can control access, by selectively allowing or disallowingaccess, to the Internet site 60 or a particular web page on the site 60based on the geographic location, IP Address, host name and/orconnection speed of the Internet user. As another example, the web sitecan analyze visits by Internet users 5 in order to compile a geographicand/or connection speed breakdown of Internet users 5 to aid in themarketing of Internet sites.

A. Credit Card Fraud

In addition to using geographic location information to targetinformation to the user, the web site 60 or the collection anddetermination system 50 can provide a mechanism for web sites owners todetect possible cases on online credit card fraud. When a user 5 entersinformation to complete an on-line order, he/she must give a shippingand billing address. This information cannot currently be validatedagainst the physical location of the user 5. Through the invention, theweb site 60 determines the geographic location of the user 5. If theuser 5 enters a location that he is determined not to be in, there couldbe a possible cause of fraud. This situation would require follow up bythe web site owner to determine if the order request was legitimate ornot.

B. Site Management

In addition to using geographic information to detect credit card fraud,the geographic information can also be used in managing traffic on theInternet 7. For example, with reference to FIG. 12, a traffic manager 70has the benefit of obtaining the geographic information of its users orvisitors 5. The traffic manager 70 may employ the local database 60 or,although not shown, may be connected to the collection and determinationsystem 50. After the traffic manager 70 detects the geographic locationof the users 5, the traffic manager 70 directs a user's 5 request to themost desirable web server, such as web server A 74 or web server B 72.For instance, if the user 5 is in Atlanta, the traffic manager 70 maydirect the user's request to web server A 74 which is based in Atlanta.On the other hand, if the user 5 is in San Francisco, then the trafficmanager 70 would direct the user 5 to web server B, which is located inSan Francisco. In this manner, the traffic manager 70 can reduce trafficbetween intermediate hosts and direct the traffic to the closest webserver.

III. Profile Server and Profile Discovery Server

As discussed above, the collection and determination system 50 may storegeographic information on users 5 and provide this information to websites 60 or other requesters 40. According to another aspect of theinvention, based on the requests from the web sites 60 and otherrequestors 40, information other than the geographic location of theusers 5 is tracked. With reference to FIG. 13, a profile server 80 isconnected to the web site 60 through the Internet and also to a profilediscovery server 90, which may also be through the Internet, throughanother network connection, or a direct connection. The profile server80 comprises a request handler 82, a database server engine 83, and adatabase 84. As will be more apparent from the description below, thedatabase 84 includes a geography database 84A, an authorization database84B, a network speed database 84C, a profile database 84D, and aninterface database 84E. The profile discovery server 90 includes adiscoverer engine 92, a profiler 93, and a database 94. The database 94includes a common geographic names database 94A, a global geographicstructure database 94B, and a MAC address ownership database 94C.

A. Profiler

In general, the profile server 80 and profile discovery server 90 gatherinformation about specific IP addresses based upon the Internet users'interactions with the various web sites 60 and other requesters 40. Thisinformation includes, but is not limited to, the types of web sites 60visited, pages hit such as sports sites, auction sites, news sites,e-commerce sites, geographic information, bandwidth information, andtime spent at the web site 60. All of this information is fed from theweb site 60 in the network back to the database 84. This information isstored in the high performance database 84 by IP address and creates anelaborate profile of the IP address based on sites 60 visited andactions taken within each site 60. This profile is stored as a series ofpreferences for or against predetermined categories. No interaction isnecessarily required between the web site 60 and the user's 5 browser tomaintain the profile. Significantly, this method of profiling does notrequire the use of any cookies that have been found to be highlyobjectionable by the users. While cookies are not preferred, due todifficulties induced by network topology, cookies may be used to trackcertain users 5 after carefully considering the privacy issues of theusers 5.

As users 5 access web sites 60 in the network, profiled informationabout the IP address of the user 60 is sent from the database 84 to theposition targeter 64 or 64′ at the web site 60. As explained above, theposition targeter 64 or 64′ or the web server 62 allows pre-setconfigurations or pages on the web site 60 to then be dynamically shownto the user 5 based on the detailed profile of that user 5. In additionpreferences of users 5 similar to those of a current user 5 can be usedto predict the content that the current user 5 may prefer to view. Theinformation profiled could include, but is not limited to, thefollowing: geographic location, connection speed to the Internet,tendency to like/dislike any of news, weather, sports, entertainment,sporting goods, clothing goods, etc.

As an example, two users are named Alice and Bob. Alice visits a website, www.somerandomsite.com. This site, asks the profile server 80,such as server.digitalenvoy.net, where Alice is from and what shelikes/dislikes. The database 84 has no record of Alice but does knowfrom geography database 84A that she is from Atlanta, Ga. and notifiesthe web site to that effect. Using Alice's geographic information, theweb site sends Alice a web page that is tailored for her geographiclocation, for instance it contains the Atlanta weather forecast and thenew headlines for Atlanta. Alice continues to visit the web site andbuys an umbrella from the site and then terminates her visit. The website lets the profile server 80 and database 84 know that Alice boughtan umbrella from the site. Bob then visits the sitewww.somerandomsite.com. The site again asks the profile server 80, suchas a server.digitalenvoy.net, about Bob. The server 80 looks in thedatabase 84 for information on Bob and finds none. Again though, theserver 80 looks in the geography database 84A and determines that he isfrom Atlanta, Ga. Also, based on the data gathered in part from Aliceand stored in profile database 84D, the profile server 80 infers thatpeople from Atlanta, Ga. may like to buy umbrellas. The site uses Bob'sgeographic information and the fact that Atlantans have a propensity tobuy umbrellas to send Bob a web page with Atlanta information, such asthe weather and news, and an offer to buy an umbrella. Bob buys theumbrella and the site sends this information to the server 80, therebyshowing a greater propensity for Atlantan's to buy umbrellas.

In addition, if the profile stored in the profile database 84D inprofile server 80 shows that an IP Address has previously hit severale-commerce sites and sports sites in the network and that the address islocated in California, the web site can be dynamically tailored to showsports items for sale that are more often purchased by Californians,such as surf boards. This method allows for more customized experiencesfor users at e-commerce and information sites.

This information can also be compiled for web sites in the network oroutside the network. Web sites outside of the network can developprofiles of the users typically hitting their web site. Log files of websites can be examined and IP Addresses can be compared against theprofiled IP Address information stored on the central server. This willallow web sites to analyze their traffic and determine the generalprofile of users hitting the site.

In order to remove “stale” information, the database server engine 83occasionally purges the database 84 in the profile server 80. Forexample, a user 5 that is interested in researching information about atrip will probably not want to continue seeing promotions for that tripafter the trip has been completed. By purging the database 84, oldpreferences are removed and are updated with current interests anddesires.

B. Content Registry

In addition to the examples provided above, the profile server 80 canprovide a mechanism for end users 5 to register their need for certaintypes of information content to be allowed or disallowed from beingserved to their systems. Registration is based on IP address andregistration rights are limited to authorized and registered owners ofthe IP addresses. These owners access the profile server 80 through theInternet and identify classes of Internet content that they would wantto allow or disallow from being served to their IP addresses ranges. Theclasses of Internet content that a particular IP address or block ofaddresses are allowed or disallowed from receiving is stored by theprofile server 80 in the authorization database 84B. Internet contentproviders, such as web sites 60, query the profile server 80, which inturn queries the authorization database 84B, and identify users 5 thatdo or do not want to receive their content based on this IP addressregistry.

For example, a school registers their IP ranges and registers with theprofile server 80 to disallow adult content from being sent to theirsystems. When an access is made from machines within the school's IPrange to an adult site, the adult site checks with the profile server 80and discovers that content provided by the adult site is disallowed frombeing sent to those IP addresses. Instead of the adult content, theadult site sends a notice to the user that the content within the sitecannot be served to his/her machine. This series of events allows end IPaddress owners to control the content that will be distributed andserved to machines within their control.

C. Bandwidth Registry

The profile server 80 preferably is also relied upon in determining theamount of content to be sent to the user 5. Web sites 60 dynamicallydetermine the available bandwidth to a specific user and provide thisinformation to the profile server 80, which stores this information inthe network speed database 84C. In addition, the web site 60 examinesthe rate and speed by which a specific user 5 is able to downloadpackets from the web site 60, the web site 60 determines the availablebandwidth from the web site 60 to the end user 5. If there is congestionat the web site 60, on the path to the end user 5, or at the last linkto the user's 5 terminal, the web site 60 limits the available bandwidthfor that user 5. Based on this information, the web site 60 candynamically reduce the amount of information being sent to the user 60and consequently increase download times perceived by the user 5. Thebandwidth information is preferably sent to the profile server 80 andstored in the network speed database 84C so that other sites 60 in thenetwork have the benefit of this bandwidth information without having tonecessarily measure the bandwidth themselves.

In order to remove “stale” bandwidth information, the database serverengine 83 occasionally purges the information in the network speeddatabase 84C. For example, congestion between a web site 60 and a user 5will usually not persist.

D. Interface Registry

Web sites 60 also preferably are able to dynamically determine theinterface that a user 5 has to view the web site 60. This user interfaceinformation may be placed in the database 84E through a registrationprocess, may be known from the ISP, or may be detected or discovered inother ways. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) users are shown a web site60 with limited or no graphics in order to accommodate the PDAs limitedstorage capabilities. Web sites 60 query the profile server 80 whenaccessed by a user 5. The profile server 80, in turn, queries theinterface database 84E and, if available, retrieves the type ofinterface associated with a particular IP address. The profile server 80stores in the database 84E all users and informs the web site 60 of thedisplay interface that the user 5 has. Based on this information, theweb site 60 tailors the information that is being sent to the user 5.

E. Methods of Operation

A preferred method 160 of operation for the profile server 80 andprofile discovery server 90 will now be described with reference toFIGS. 14(A) and 14(B). At 162, the profile server 80 is given an IPaddress or host name to query. At 163, the profile server 80 determineswhether the requestor is authorized to receive the information and, ifnot, tells the requestor at 166 that the information is unknown. Theinquiry as to whether the requestor is authorized at 163 is preferablyperformed so that only those entities that have paid for access to theprofile server 80 and profile discovery server 90 obtain the data. Ifthe requestor is authorized, then the profile server at 164 determineswhether the profile of the address is known. If the profile for thataddress is known, the profile server 80 sends the requested informationto the requestor at 165, otherwise the profile server 80 at 166 informsthe requestor that the information is unknown.

For information that is unknown to the profile server 80, the profileserver 80 passes the information to the profile discovery server 90 at167. At 168, the profile discovery server determines the route to theaddress, at 169 obtains known information about all hosts in route fromthe profile server 80, and then decides at 170 whether any unknown hostsare left in the route. If no unknown hosts are left in the route, thenat 171 the profile discovery server 90 returns an error condition andnotifies the operator.

For each host name left in the route, the profile discovery server 90next at 172 determines whether a host name exists for the unknown host.If so, then at 173 the profile discovery server attempts to determinethe location based on common host name naming conventions and/or globalcountry based naming conventions. At 174, the profile discovery server90 checks whether the host responds to NTP queries and, if so, at 175attempts to determine the time zone based on the NTP responses. At 176,the profile discovery server 90 checks whether the host responds to SNMPqueries and, if so, at 177 attempts to determine the location, machinetype, and connection speed based on public SNMP responses. Next, at 178,the profile discovery server 90 checks whether the host has a MACaddress and, if so, attempts to determine machine type and connectionspeed based on known MAC address delegations.

At 180, the profile discovery server 90 determines whether anyadditional unknown hosts exist. If so, the profile discovery server 90returns to 172 and checks whether a host name is available. When no moreunknown hosts exist, the profile discovery server 90 at 181 interpolatesinformation to determine any remaining information, at 182 flags theinterpolated data for future review, and at 183 saves all discovered andinterpolated data at the profile server 80.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the inventionhas been presented only for the purpose of illustration and descriptionand is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to theprecise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possiblein light of the above teaching.

The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain theprinciples of the invention and their practical application so as toenable others skilled in the art to utilize the invention and variousembodiments and with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

1-36. (Canceled) 37 An automated computer-implemented method ofdetermining a geographic location of an Internet user, comprising:receiving at least one of an IP address, host name or domain nameassociated with the Internet user, wherein the IP address, host name ordomain name are associated with a target host; obtaining a route throughthe Internet to the target host, the route containing intermediatehosts; determining strings of characters associated with geographicnaming conventions for at least some of the intermediate hosts containedin the route; determining geographic locations associated with at leastsome of the intermediate hosts by use of a database correlating thestrings of characters to geographic locations; and automaticallydetermining the geographic location of the Internet user by analysis ofthe route and the geographic locations of at least some of theintermediate hosts.
 38. The method of claim 37, further comprisingderiving the geographic location for an unknown intermediate host withinthe route that does not have an associated string of charactersassociated with a geographic naming convention by determining thegeographic location of an entity that owns the unknown intermediatehost.
 39. The method of claim 37, further comprising storing thegeographic location of the Internet user in a database along with thegeographic locations of a plurality of other Internet users.
 40. Themethod of claim 37, further comprising determining a geographic addressof an entity that owns the IP address, host name or domain name.
 41. Themethod of claim 37, wherein the receiving one of the IP address, hostname or the domain name comprises receiving both the IP address and thedomain name and the method further comprises verifying that the IPaddress corresponds to the host name or the domain name.
 42. The methodof claim 37, wherein the obtaining of the route through the Internetcomprises performing a traceroute.
 43. The method of claim 37, furthercomprising assigning a confidence level to the geographic location ofthe Internet user.
 44. The method of claim 37, wherein automaticallydetermining the geographic location of the Internet user comprisesautomatically determining a city where the Internet user is located. 45.The method of claim 37, wherein automatically determining the geographiclocation of the Internet user comprises automatically determining aregion within a country where the Internet user is located.
 46. Themethod of claim 37, wherein receiving comprises receiving a plurality ofIP addresses, host names or domain names associated with a plurality ofInternet users, and wherein automatically determining comprisesautomatically determining geographic locations of the plurality ofInternet users.
 47. The method of claim 37, further comprising receivingqueries for the geographic location of the Internet user and returningthe geographic location.
 48. A computer-implemented method ofdetermining a geographic location of a target host, comprising:receiving at least one of an IP address, host name or domain nameassociated with the target host; obtaining a route through the Internetto the target host, the route containing at least one intermediate hosthaving an intermediate host name; determining a string of charactersassociated with a geographic naming convention in the intermediate hostname; determining a geographic location of the intermediate host basedat least in part on the string of characters; and automaticallydetermining the geographic location of the target host at least in partby analysis of the route and the geographic location of the intermediatehost.
 49. The method of claim 48, further comprising storing thegeographic location of the target host in a database along with thegeographic locations of a plurality of other target hosts.
 50. Themethod of claim 48, wherein the target host is associated with at leastone Internet user.
 51. The method of claim 48, wherein determining afirst geographic location of the intermediate host comprises using adatabase associating a plurality of strings of characters withgeographic locations.
 52. The method of claim 48, wherein receivingcomprises receiving a plurality of IP addresses, host names or domainnames associated with a plurality of target hosts, and whereinautomatically determining comprises automatically determining geographiclocations of the plurality of target hosts.
 53. The method of claim 48,wherein the route contains a plurality of intermediate hosts and ageographic location is determined for each intermediate host.
 54. Themethod of claim 53, wherein automatically determining the geographiclocation of the target host comprises analysis of the route and thegeographic locations of the intermediate hosts.
 55. The method of claim53, further comprising determining a confidence level associated withthe geographic location of the intermediate host.
 56. The method ofclaim 48, further comprising determining a confidence level associatedwith the geographic location of the target host.
 57. The method of claim48, wherein the receiving one of the IP address, host name or the domainname comprises receiving both the IP address and the domain name and themethod further comprises verifying that the IP address corresponds tothe host name or the domain name.
 58. The method of claim 48, whereinthe obtaining of the route through the Internet comprises performing atraceroute.
 59. The method of claim 48, wherein automaticallydetermining the geographic location of the target host comprisesautomatically determining a city where the target host is located. 60.The method of claim 48, wherein automatically determining the geographiclocation of the target host comprises automatically determining a regionwithin a country where the target host is located.
 61. The method ofclaim 50, further comprising receiving at least one query for thegeographic location of the Internet user and returning the geographiclocation.